Opera or school seat



'view of a chair and school-desk, the seat be- *UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HOWELL GARDINER, on BATTLE GREEK, MICHIGAN.

OPERA 03' SCHOOL SEAT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of LettersPaten t No. 376,738, dated January 24, 1888.

' Application filed June 1, 1887. Serial No. 239,967. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern- Be it known that I, HOWELL E. GARDINER, a citizen of the United States, residing atBattle Creek, in the county of Calhoun and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Opera and School Seats; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exactdescription of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same. 1

-My invention relates to that class of operachairs or school-seats that will adapt themselves to the movement of the body of the occupant as he sits down or rises up-that is to say, to that class which will enable the occupant to rise readily, and which affords a free passage when one seat is in front of another and permits the occupant to rise at a desk with- 'seat hung as above described, of means for holding it and releasing it from its'horizontal position. i i It also consists in certain other combinations, which will be hereinafter more particularly described, and pointed out in the claims. In the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective ing raised to position for use. Fig. 2is a similar view of a single chair with the seat folded up. Fig. 3 is a detail showing onemeans for holding the seat in its raised position, ready for use.

A A are the side standards of the chair, usually made of castiron in any suitable form, substantially such as shown. These side standards are provided with flanges or feet, as shown, by which they may be screwed to the floor. The-back A is secured firmly to the standard-castings by means of bolts or otherwise, and they are thereby braced and supported in a fixed relation with each other, and the whole constitutes the chair-frame.

The side standards in this instance are provided with slightly-elongated sockets or,bearings a, from which is suspended the seat, as shown. When used for schoolpurposes, the standards will be provided with brackets A to constitute the desk-support, as shown in Fig. 1. The seat is composed of side'pieces vor hangers, B, having,'by preference, flanges b b for armrests, and the seat portion B, connected in any suitable manner with the hang-- ers.

cast with the hangers B, and theyare ar ranged, substantially as shown, in rear of a plane which would passlengthwise through the middle of the seat.

O G are gudgeonsor journals secured to or In order to protect the occupant and to it avoid accidents by reason of the movement of V v the seat within the sides of the standards, I

provide side pieces, B. These may eitherbe cast integral with thehangers B, or may be wooden pieces attached to such hangers. By hanging a seat as above described and shown in the drawings it naturally swings back out of the way, with the top or finished side of the For limiting the movement of the seat, and

for taking up a large part of the weight of the occupant, I provide supports d d for the rear edge of the seat.

With a seat hung as above described it is advantageous to have some means for holding it'in its horizontal position before the occupants weight is applied to bring it tosuch position. There are many ways in which this may beaccomplished by snap-catches, coun-' terpoises, c. but I find that a projecting rib or cam, a, .formed in the socket to operate in connection with a corresponding notch in the journal, is effective forthe purpose. By having the journal or gudgeon nearly fit against the sides of the socket and the notch to fit well over the rib the shouldersof the ribs. and

notches will lock. together and hold the seat in position shown in Fig. 1; but upon downward and backward pressure against the front edge of the seat the gudgeons are raised, and

the shoulders slippast each other, and the Seat drops by gravity into the position shown in Fig. 2. The socket-hole should be elongated, as shown, to permit the gudgeon to rise above the rib, and the supports d d should be provided with buffers to avoid shocks and noises.

A seat hung and operating in the manner herein described has no tendency to fall in such way as to produce hammering sounds and noises, as is the case with those mounted on swinging bars or arms.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. A chair or seatconsisting of side standards carrying a fixed back and provided with forwardly extending arms, in combination with a seat having rigid upwardly-projecting brackets or hangers pivoted to said arms above the plane of the seat and behind the middle line thereof, substantially as described.

2. A chair or seat consisting of the combination of a suitable frame or support, a folding seat suspended by rigid hangers in bearings above said seat and behind the middle line thereof, and means for holding said seat in and for releasing it from a horizontal position, substantially as described.

3. A chair or seat consisting of a frame or support having bearings provided with ribs or shoulders and a rearwardly-folding seat suspended from said bearings by rigid hangers having gudgeons provided with notches, substantially as described.

4. The combination of a frame or support, rearwardly-folding seat suspended by rigid hangers in bearings above said seat, the bear- 7 ings being provided with ribs and the pivots with notches for holding and releasing the seat and limiting and supporting stops, substanstantially as described.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

HOWELL E. GARDINER. Witnesses:

WM. M. STOOKBRIDGE, V. D. STOOKBRIDGE. 

